Where do you live?

Following on from my post about Government plans to levy council tax according to the value of your home, we now hear that the charge will also be based on the area in which you live; the nicer the higher. Some of the factors to be taken into account are crime rates, the condition of the surroundings, and how good the local schools are. Also important (apparently) are the size of phone bills, where the neighbours go on holiday, what sorts of pets the neighbours have, and the number of professionals who live in the area.

This is a tax blog, so we tend not to go into the human rights aspects of things. It must however be stated that if these proposals are implemented, they would constitute a gross breach of privacy, an unacceptable intrusion into the lives of the citizens by the State.

As a tax policy, this is a crazy idea. What, for example, have all the above factors to do with when, and how often, our bins are collected by the council? And if nicer areas are taxed more, their local councils will have more money to spend on making those areas even nicer, thus leading to higher taxes. The reverse is true for poorer areas. How does this help the poorer areas? Perhaps the Government is planning to raid the coffers of the richer local authorities and give the money to the poorer ones. Redistribution at local authority level? Nothing would surprise me.

And what sort of incentive is this for people to improve their surroundings? Set up a Neighbourhood Watch, take care of the local park, and the taxman comes calling with a higher bill. On the other hand, if you don't care about your surroundings, and the local youths run riot every night, smashing every window and bus shelter in sight, you are rewarded with a lower tax bill.

At the lowest level, this is nothing but a tax on aspiration shot through with socialist spite and class envy. The aim is to penalise poor middle class folk who have, through hard work and sacrifice, enabled themselves and their families to move to a better home in a better area. What are Government ministers thinking? This policy is electoral suicide, which, come to think of it, is no bad thing.